President Barack Obama, reacting to the spectacular political belly-flop by the Supercommittee (which proved to be anything but) has announced that he will veto an attempt to remove the automatic domestic and defense spending cuts that will kick in now that Congress has failed to deliver with the Supercommittee. Here’s his full statement so you can analyze it for yourself:
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FOOTNOTE: Earlier today MSNBC’s excellent First Read had this item — which is more fitting than ever:
*** Worst. Congress. Ever? Last summer, during the height of the debt-ceiling debate, congressional scholar Norm Ornstein wrote an article dubbing this Congress the “Worst. Congress. Ever.” And there’s now even more evidence to back up that assertion. According to Gallup, just 13% approve of Congress’ job (and that percentage is lower in other polls). As far as productivity goes, congressional lobbyist Billy Moore tells First Read that this Congress has enacted just 55 public laws so far this year (and 34 of them merely extended existing laws), compared with the average over the last 20 years of 148 public laws for a first full session. Moreover, back in the spring, Congress almost allowed the federal government to shut down. In the summer, Standard & Poor’s cited Congress’ brinksmanship over the debt ceiling as its rationale for downgrading U.S. debt. And now, unless a miracle occurs, it appears that the so-called Super Committee won’t be able to reach an agreement to strike a deal over how to cut $1.2 trillion or more in spending.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.